Tonight, the Game Awards 2015 will take place, this time in Los Angeles, at the Microsoft Theater. It’s been a mixed bag for video games this year (at least for me). Sort of like a bag of Chex Mix that you pick around in, eating only the super salty Chex pieces, and ignoring the gross brown circle thingies that you just know have some sinister intent that you can’t quite place.

For those too lazy to go to their official website: the Game Awards 2015 begins at 6 PM Pacific, and you can watch it on the usual channels (Twitch, Youtube, etc.)!

Disclaimer: I have not played every game in this list nor am I an expert analyst of interactive media. I just get excited and super nerdy about awards shows . . .

Best Shooter

CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS 3 – Treyarch

DESTINY: THE TAKEN KING – Bungie

HALO 5: GUARDIANS – 343 Industries

SPLATOON – Nintendo <WINNER>

STAR WARS BATTLEFRONT – DICE

Should win: Destiny: The Taken KingWill probably win: Destiny still has, in my opinion, the best controls of any modern console shooter, which makes it my pick to win here. It didn’t take the prize last year (although there was more competition in 2014) and it has only gotten better with its latest expansion.Dark horse: Splatoon

Best Role Playing Game

BLOODBORNE – FromSoftware

FALLOUT 4 – Bethesda Game Studios

PILLARS OF ETERNITY – Obsidian Entertainment

THE WITCHER 3: WILD HUNT – CD Projekt Red <WINNER>

UNDERTALE – tobyfox

Should win: The Witcher 3: Wild HuntWill probably win: Interesting that Bloodborne was nominated as an RPG and not an Action/Adventure. If it weren’t in the same category as the Witcher 3, I might have picked it here. That said, it still has a strong chance of winning. Fallout 4 is pretty great, but has too many bugs for me to pick it confidently. Pillars of Eternity’s throwback RPG style puts it comfortably in the running, but again, I just have to give the win to the Witcher 3.Dark horse: Undertale

Best Narrative

HER STORY – Sam Barlow <WINNER>

LIFE IS STRANGE – DONTNOD Entertainment

TALES FROM THE BORDERLANDS – TellTale Games

THE WITCHER 3: WILD HUNT – CD Projekt Red

UNTIL DAWN – Supermassive Games

Should win: The Witcher 3: Wild HuntWill probably win: The Witcher 3’s story manages to be epic in scale, while maintaining excellent character development and side quests with substance and heart. It’s definitely a favorite to win here.Dark horse: Her Story

Best Multiplayer

CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS 3 – Treyarch

DESTINY: THE TAKEN KING – Bungie

HALO 5: GUARDIANS – 343 Industries

ROCKET LEAGUE – Psyonix

SPLATOON – Nintendo <WINNER>

Should win: Destiny: The Taken King (The game is basically unplayable by yourself)Will probably win: I assume Super Smash Bros was omitted here because it was technically released last year? Oh well. I guess a lot of people play Call of Duty, and Halo 5 multiplayer is apparently super fun. Never played Rocket League or Splatoon. I suck, I’m sorry.Dark horse: Rocket League

Best Art Direction

BATMAN: ARKHAM KNIGHT – Rocksteady Studios

BLOODBORNE – FromSoftware

METAL GEAR SOLID V: THE PHANTOM PAIN – Kojima Productions

ORI AND THE BLIND FOREST – Moon Studios <WINNER>

THE WITCHER 3: THE WILD HUNT – CD Projekt Red

Should win: Bloodborne (Although, I just want to say, that I am appalled–APPALLED–that Halo 5: Guardians wasn’t nominated here)Will probably win: Bloodborne I think is the favorite here, with its lush gothic and Lovecraftian stage.Dark horse: Ori and the Blind Forest

Best Score/Soundtrack

FALLOUT 4 – Inon Zur

HALO 5: GUARDIANS – Kazuma Jinnouchi

METAL GEAR SOLID V: THE PHANTOM PAIN – Justin Burnett <WINNER>

ORI AND THE BLIND FOREST – Gareth Cooker

THE WITCHER 3: WILD HUNT – Marcin Przybylowicz

Should win: Halo 5: GuardiansWill probably win: Halo 5: Guardians. Although Halo 5 (to me) is probably the weakest in the series, the music was just ridiculous. After Neil Davidge came into score Halo 4, I thought they’d never find someone to replace Marty O’Donnell (all hail), but Jinnouchi combines both themes from the original Halo trilogy with those of the “Reclaimer” saga, and it is nothing short of a masterpiece. Still, Inon Zur’s score for Fallout 4 is award-worthy, despite it sometimes taking a backseat to the 50s/60s era soundtrack in the game itself.Dark horse: The Witcher 3. I’m placing it here as a dark horse, but has a definite chance of winning here, and I wouldn’t be too disappointed.

Best Performance

ASHLEY BURCH as Chloe Price – Life is Strange

CAMILLA LUDDINGTON as Lara Croft – Rise of the Tomb Raider

DOUG COCKLE as Geralt – The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

MARK HAMILL as The Joker – Batman: Arkham Knight

VIVA SEIFERT – Her Story <WINNER>

Should win: Doug Cockle (Sorry Markham)Will probably win: Oh, this is hard. Mark Hamill, I think. His Joker performance has always been something to behold, but there are some great performances here. Too close to call, really.Dark horse: Viva Seifert

Best Independent Game

AXIOM VERGE – Tom Happ

HER STORY – Sam Barlow

ORI AND THE BLIND FOREST – Moon Studios

ROCKET LEAGUE – Psyonix <WINNER>

UNDERTALE – tobyfox

Should win: UndertaleWill probably win: UndertaleDark horse: Her Story

Games for Impact

CIBELE – Star Maid Games

HER STORY – Sam Barlow

LIFE IS STRANGE – DONTNOD Entertainment <WINNER>

SUNSET – Tale of Tales

UNDERTALE – tobyfox

Should win: Haven’t played any of these games . . . YETWill probably win: So I’m not entirely sure what the criteria for “Games for Impact” are, so I’m going to go with Undertale because I’ve heard it’s amazeballssauce (ew). Also, Her Story.Dark horse: Life is Strange

eSports Player of the Year – (Fan’s Choice)

KENNY “KENNYS” SCHRUB – Counter-Strike: Global Offensive <WINNER>

LEE “FAKER” SANG-HYEOK – League of Legends

OLOF “OLOFMEISTER” KAJBJER – Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

PETER “PPD” DAGER – Dota 2

SYED SUMAIL “SUMA1L” HASSAN – Dota 2

Should win: Faker (2-time LoL Worlds Champion is no small feat)Will probably win: I honestly do not know. I think my brother-in-law Jeff would be more qualified for this eSports stuff!Dark horse: ^^^^

eSports Team of the Year – (Fan’s Choice)

EVIL GENIUSES

FNATIC

OPTIC GAMING <WINNER>

SK TELECOM T1

TEAM SOLO MID

Should win: Evil GeniusesWill probably win: Evil Geniuses for their surgical victory at the International 2015, becoming the first North American team to bring home Dota 2’s number one prize.Dark horse: SK Telecom T1

eSports Game of the Year – (Fan’s Choice)

CALL OF DUTY: ADVANCED WARFARE – Sledgehammer Games

COUNTER-STRIKE: GLOBAL OFFENSIVE – Valve <WINNER>

DOTA 2 – Valve

HEARTHSTONE – Blizzard Entertainment

LEAGUE OF LEGENDS – Riot Games

Should win: League of Legends (I may be biased)Will probably win: Counter-Strike or Dota 2 (Am I cheating by saying “or”? Possibly)Dark horse: Hearthstone

Trending Gamer – (Fan’s Choice)

CHRISTOPHER “MONTECRISTO” MYKLES

GREG MILLER <WINNER>

MARKIPLIER

PEWDIEPIE

TOTALBISCUIT

Should win: Greg MillerWill probably win: I think TotalBiscuit has a lot of fans? I honestly don’t know who he and Markiplier are. Greg Miller is my hero and I am 100% apathetic towards Pewdiepie. You know what? As long as it’s not Montecristo, I’ll be happy.Dark horse: I DON’T KNOW

Best Fan Creation (Fan’s Choice)

GTA V: TARGETS – Hoodoo Operator

PORTAL STORIES: MEL – Prism Studios <WINNER>

REAL GTA – Corridor Digital

TWITCH PLAYS DARK SOULS – Twitch Community

Should win: I . . . no commentWill probably win: Twitch Plays Dark SoulsDark horse: The other three

Most Anticipated Game (Fan’s Choice)

HORIZON ZERO DAWN – Guerilla Games

NO MAN’S SKY – Hello Games <WINNER>

QUANTUM BREAK – Remedy Entertainment

THE LAST GUARDIAN – GenDesign

UNCHARTED 4: A THIEF’S END – Naughty Dog

Should win: No Man’s SkyWill probably win: The Last Guardian. I, for one, can’t believe this game is still happening. Like, I actually forgot about it. And I thought everyone else did too. I sort of hope it never gets released, and becomes mythologized, kind of in the same vein as that E.T. Atari game or the Nintendo Playstation.Dark horse: Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End

Industry Icon

BRETT SPERRY AND LEWIS CASTLE (Co-Founders of Westwood Studios)

Developer of the Year

BETHESDA

CD PROJEKT RED <WINNER>

FROMSOFTWARE

KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS

NINTENDO

Should win: CD Projekt RedWill probably win: CD Projekt Red. The Polish developers knocked it out of the park with The Witcher 3, and gave players a ton of great free DLC throughout its first month of release–ACTUAL DLC, mind you. FromSoftware could take a win in this category, too with Bloodborne’s The Old Hunters receiving positive reviews (and eyeball-bulging bouts of frustration, no doubt).Dark horse: Kojima Productions is going to be the fan favorite at the Game Awards this year, due to its dramatic split from publisher Konami and subsequent “closing of doors” after completion of MGSV. Its fate is nebulous to say the least, and the award as “Developer of the Year” would be sweet.

Game of the Year

BLOODBORNE – FromSoftware

FALLOUT 4 – Bethesda Game Studios

METAL GEAR SOLID V: THE PHANTOM PAIN – Kojima Productions

SUPER MARIO MAKER – Nintendo

THE WITCHER 3: THE WILD HUNT – CD Projekt Red <WINNER>

Should win: Bloodborne/The Witcher 3: Wild HuntWill probably win: It’s so damn hard to call this one. Bloodborne is consistently challenging, horrific, and rewarding throughout, while the Witcher 3 sets the modern standard for role-playing games. I would put Metal Gear Solid V in the running, if its last third wasn’t so poor. Still, it’s probably the closest category of the year, and the most important one, at that. All I can say is that I DON’T think it will be Fallout 4.Dark horse: Can’t really call it a dark horse, considering how tight the race is here, but I’m going to go with Super Mario Maker. You can never count out Nintendo’s flagship plumber!

And that’s it. I’d love to know your picks (and the reasoning behind them)–so leave a comment below! And don’t forget to come back here after the event and see how many I got wrong, which will, I guarantee, be a lot.

Hype trains are dangerous. In my experience, the things you want the most rarely live up to expectations. They have the tendency to disappoint you, make you question the meaninglessness of your life, make you want to give yourself a swirly, or eat a fat-ass block of cheese, because who cares if you’re lactose intolerant? the thing you were looking forward to turned out to be a stinking heap of colon-mangling crap, and WHAT EVEN IS THE POINT ANYMORE?

So. What does this have to do with the pilot episode of Syfy’s The Expanse? NOTHING. AND EVERYTHING. Because it’s amazing, and I haven’t really been able to focus on anything else except how downright awesome this series is going to be. I know. You’re thinking: Philip, stop fanboy-ing. I can’t. Look, full disclosure: I was going to love this show no matter what. I would have watched each episode 70 times over even if it was awful. Like, I’m talking season 6 of Supernatural awful, or maybe even all of Arrow.

But I am so over-the-moon ecstatic (and a little relieved, to be honest) to say that “Dulcinea” is an amazing start for The Expanse. It succeeds on all the right levels, but that said, I did “rate” this episode 82 points out of a 100, and I’ll explain why. Well, I’ll try to. Huehuehue. I’m trying something new when it comes to “ratings”–because everyone likes arbitrary numerical simplification of thoughts and opinions, right??? (Scroll all the way down if you want to skip the boring shit that is my prose.

As each episode of The Expanse is released, I’m going to focus on one thing in these reviews: the episode title. Why? Because if I talked about everything, I’d probably have a goddamn stroke, sa sa? (I probably didn’t use that right.) More importantly, I like to think that writers put a lot of thought, love, and care into naming things, and I think that alone is enough to talk about. Kennst? (Probably used that wrong too.)

So! DULCINEA. Dool-sin-nay-yuh. Dulcinea dulcinea dulcinea. For those non-English majors out there, Dulcinea is the name of Don Quixote’s “love” in Cervantes’ Don Quixote. Readers of Leviathan Wakes will quickly pick up on this reference to the Spanish classic, as Miller is described as “tilting at windmills” in his search for Julie Mao–not to mention a certain ship called the Rocinante, that comes into play later in the story. But what significance does invoking the name “Dulcinea” have within the confines of The Expanse?

Don Quixote never actually encounters Dulcinea in the book–she’s very much an unknown character, but Quixote himself talks about her as if she is an angel, or even a goddess. But Quixote, being . . . well, himself, is living in his own world. His sidekick, Sancho Panza, paints a more believable portrait of her as a humble “peasant” and being “muscular”–not at all like how Quixote imagines her. Like the Hype Train, a person’s “Dulcinea” can be deceiving. It’s oftentimes not what we expect, or what we hoped.

This metaphor works with The Expanse on multiple levels. Firstly: the setting. The future depicted in The Expanse isn’t chrome and FTL drives. It’s an angry, frustrated society, where even air can be taken from you. A very far cry from Utopian. People like to look forward to the future with hope, whether it’s just the day ahead or a decade down the line. But in The Expanse, the “Dulcinea” of humanity isn’t sleek or fashionable or comfortable. Rather, it’s claustrophobic and greedy. The world of the Expanse is Panza’s “Dulcinea,” but there are still people in it that see Quixote’s.

Which segues us nicely into the topic of character. Let’s talk about Holden and Miller. If Holden is Quixote, then Miller is Panza. Weird parallels, but stick with me. Obviously, this about the show, not the books, so I’ll refrain from getting too specific/spoilery. Like Quixote, Holden is an idealist; of course, he’s not borderline insane like the Spanish “knight,” but a part of him wants to view the universe as a good place, filled with good people. He’s tilting at windmills, and in some ways, more than a little naive.

On the other side of the coin, you have Miller, whose “Dulcinea” is a bit more tangible. (Sort of). His search for Julie Mao brings him face-to-face with Panza’s grittier portrait of Dulcinea. His existence in the underworld of the solar system makes him considerably more fatalistic in worldview.

So is this future one of hope, or one of threat? It’s this dichotomy that The Expanse smartly places at the core of its thematic body, and one that is beautifully set into motion by the show’s episode uno.

TL;DR The show is fucking fantastic, and you should be watching/re-watching it instead of reading this crap blog post.

Wandering thoughts on The Expanse, “Dulcinea” (S01E01):

Clinton Shorter is killing it with the score. The “fairy tale” vibe that I’m getting from it feels very appropriate, and I get chills from the Opening Credits sequence every time. Also the Hans Zimmer-esque BVROOOMs were well-placed, and made the Canterbury’s flip-and-burn maneuver that much more amazing

The CGI for space/ships/cities is beyond excellent. But it was so excellent that the CGI bird that Miller fed looked really bad in comparison. Poor bird

“There’s no law on Ceres. Just cops.” -Miller

I’m a little super sad that Jonathan Banks only had one scene. ‘Twas fucking great, though

After watching this first episode, I can see why Syfy (or whoever) wanted a two-night premiere. Although it’s a great pilot, it does feel like a “part one of two” sort of deal

The Roci crew seems to have great chemistry

Avasarala had two scenes, and I simultaneously want her as my grandma and my torturer. That’s not weird, right?

I will now list everything that was awesome about “Dulcinea”:

Thomas Jane

Shohreh Aghdashloo–I’m curious to see how they handle Avasarala’s swearing, if it all. Can she cuss in a different language? I don’t know if that’s allowed, either

Belter gestures/patois

Dat Ceres intro

Shed

Those walls in New York that block the rising ocean–I don’t know what the fuck they’re called

What did you think?? Note the awesome music by Clinton Shorter. It’s got an almost “fairy tale” feel to it, eh? Don’t forget to check out the other goodies on Syfy’s website, including the full NY Comic Con panel!

And if all that weren’t enough, there’s a special Expanse screening on December 3rd, in Santa Fe, at the Jean Cocteau Theater, where Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck will be available to sign books (and body parts?!). George R. R. Martin will be there too! More info at their official blog here.

ONE. MORE. THING. It was recently announced that there will be a DIGITAL release for The Expanse, a few weeks ahead of the television premiere date. On NOVEMBER 23RD, “Dulcinea” (Episode 1) will be available to stream in the United States, on syfy.com, among other websites. That is TEN days away. Tennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn.

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]]>https://alwayssometimesvillains.wordpress.com/2015/11/13/the-expanse-opening-credits-sequence/feed/2expanse opening titles saturnalwayssometimesvillains“The Expanse:” Page to Screenhttps://alwayssometimesvillains.wordpress.com/2015/11/11/the-expanse-the-expanse-the-expanse/
https://alwayssometimesvillains.wordpress.com/2015/11/11/the-expanse-the-expanse-the-expanse/#respondWed, 11 Nov 2015 17:53:43 +0000http://alwayssometimesvillains.com/?p=3511At this point, I should probably just make a separate category for The Expanse, huh??? Check out this short “Page to Screen” video about the TV Show, and drool and giggle and rub the side of your face against your bedroom walls because why isn’t it DECEMBER YET.